Fall Guys

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a multiplayer platform battle-royale game created by Mediatonic and originally published by Devolver Digital. It launched for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Steam on 4 August 2020, after its E3 2019 reveal. Contestants control jellybean-shaped characters through obstacle courses, survival rounds, team games, and finals. Its competition relies on running, jumping, diving, grabbing, physics-driven collisions, and hazards including rotating bars and moving platforms. A standard Show began with up to sixty players and reduced the field across successive rounds until a final awarded a Crown. Players could use Crowns and Kudos, the original in-game currencies, for cosmetics, while costumes became central to its identity. The game's title uses the English term for a scapegoat. Influences include Takeshi's Castle, Wipeout, and It's a Knockout, which game designer Joe Walsh cited when describing the game's development. Fall Guys rapidly became a major launch success. Devolver said it sold more than two million copies on Steam in its first week, and it was PlayStation Plus’s most-downloaded game globally at that point. Its first season, themed around a television game show, was followed by seasons with themes such as medieval fantasy, winter, space, and jungle. Crossover costumes and events have included franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Godzilla, Among Us, and Halo. Epic Games acquired Tonic Games Group, Mediatonic’s parent company, in March 2021. On 21 June 2022, Fall Guys became free to play and arrived on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store. The transition introduced cross-platform progression through Epic Games Accounts, ended new Steam purchases, and gave earlier purchasers a Legacy Pack. Its seasonal structure was reset as Free for All Season 1, featuring an event pass called the Season Pass. In May 2023, Mediatonic released Creative, a toolset allowing players to build, publish, and play custom rounds. Creative debuted alongside the “Creative Construction” update, whose opening season was called Season 4: Creative Construction. This addition complemented playlists containing developer-made rounds and made user-created levels part of the game’s continuing live service. The game’s fictional arena is called the Blunderdome. In 2021, Mediatonic added Squads Mode, in which four-player teams accumulate points across rounds, and later added Duos. Although competitors can stumble or be knocked from platforms, eliminated Beans may spectate others. Finals have included Hex-A-Gone, Fall Mountain, Jump Showdown, and Royal Fumble, a tail-chasing contest. One player must keep the tail until time expires.